Information in health care process - evaluation toolkit development

Increasing health care costs put a great strain on national economies. In recent years there have been several national and regional research and development projects in Finland and in the Netherlands with attempt to generate new modes and means of health care service processes. The aim is at better utilisation of the existing social and health care resources, improved quality of service and rationalisation of business processes without compromising high quality of care. Increased cooperation between the various actors and institutions of health care is essential in achieving this aim. "Adaptability of processes ", "networking" and "seamless service chains" are key words in this development. Information technology plays an important role in traditional business process designing. Both high hopes and large investments have been put in acquisition and implementation of health care information systems without exact evidence of their influence on the process itself. An information system has to appropriately support the flow, acquisition and handling of information needed within the process. The solutions should be both effective and cost-effective. However, implementing a new system or changing an existing one may have a profound, unexpected effect on work and service processes. From health care organisations' point of view, evaluation of information systems facilitates the utilisation of existing information and communication technology (ICT) solutions. Hence, a comprehensive set of evaluation tools is needed to facilitate the health service providers' work. This paper examines issues that have been studied in the ongoing research project that aims at compiling such toolkit.